1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a control method of a liquid ejecting apparatus used in an ink jet type printer or the like.
2. Related Art
An ink jet type printer (hereinafter, simply referred to as a “printer”) has been used which ejects ink (liquid) onto a recording medium (target) using a liquid ejecting apparatus that ejects liquid onto a target from a recording head as a liquid ejecting head. In such a printer, when a state in which ink is not ejected from nozzles of the recording head is continued for a long time, there is a concern of the surface of an ink meniscus in the nozzle drying, resulting in an ink ejection defect. Therefore, in such a printer, so-called flushing in which ink is forcibly ejected from the nozzles on the basis of a control signal unrelated to printing is performed (for example, refer to JP-A-2007-160793).
For example, in a case of a serial type or lateral type printer in which a recording head ejects ink while reciprocating along a transport plane of a recording sheet during printing, the recording head is moved to a non-printing region deviating from the recording sheet, and flushing is performed so that ink is flushed into a liquid storage unit such as a cap or a flushing box disposed in the region. On the other hand, in a case of a line head type printer in which a recording head is disposed over the entire sheet width in the direction perpendicular to a transport direction of a recording sheet on a transport path of the recording sheet without moving along the transport plane of the recording sheet, a liquid storage unit such as a cap is movable and flushing is performed by moving the liquid storage unit to a position that is close to and opposes a nozzle formation surface of the recording head.
In addition, after ending the flushing, the liquid storage unit such as a cap and the recording head are moved relative to each other in separate directions. That is, in the case of the serial type or lateral type printer, the recording head is moved from the position that is close to and opposes the liquid storage unit such as a cap in a direction to be separated. On the other hand, in the case of the line head type printer, the liquid storage unit such as a cap is moved from the position that is close to and opposes the recording head in a direction to be separated. In addition, when the nozzle formation surface of the recording head is in a state of opposing the recording sheet due to the relative movement, ink for printing is ejected again from the nozzles of the recording head toward the recording sheet.
In the case of the serial type or lateral type printer as such, the liquid storage unit such as a flushing box is provided in the non-printing region deviating from the recording sheet and flushing is performed therein. Therefore, there are problems in that a margin space is needed for an apparatus housing of the printer, and time loss occurs for the taken time corresponding to the movement of the recording head, resulting in a reduction in throughput.
These problems also occur in the case of the line head type printer, and even in the case of the line head type printer, the movable liquid storage unit such as a cap is provided and flushing is performed by moving the liquid storage unit to a position that is close to and opposes the nozzle formation surface of the recording head. Therefore, similarly, there are problems in that a margin space is needed for the apparatus housing of the printer, and time loss occurs for the time taken corresponding to the movement of the recording head, resulting in a reduction in throughput.